Actor Michael Keaton is seeking to be referred to by a different name.
Originally born Michael Douglas, the "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice" star told PEOPLE how he had to alter his birth name once he began acting because another prominent Hollywood talent, Academy Award winner and "Wall Street" star Michael Douglas, was already using it. As noted by CNN, the Screen Actors Guild does not allow two actors to go by the same name.
“I was looking through — I can’t remember if it was a phone book,” Keaton told PEOPLE of how he settled on his more commonly known last name. “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.’”
Keaton also shared that he had planned to use his given name in his recent film, "Knox Goes Away," in which he serves as director and lead. “I said, ‘Hey, just as a warning, my credit is going to be Michael Keaton Douglas.’ And it totally got away from me,” he said. “And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But that will happen.”
